Knitting Needles
by and-so-the-feels-begin
Summary: 'It was a small, modest shop without anything outstanding or eye catching about it, so much so that she nearly wouldn't have paid any notice to it if it weren't for a young man standing outside, painting the window frames.' / Sabine backstory fic. Tom x Sabine


**Hey, guys, I don't know what my obsession with side characters are but for some reason, I love writing about Miraculous Ladybug ones. This originally was only meant to be a story about Marinette learning how to knit, but instead, it tells my idea of Sabine's backstory. I don't know how it came from that to this, but I hope you guys like it.**

 **Without further ado, enjoy~**

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"How do I pull off, again?"

Sabine looked up from her set of needles to her daughter, who was staring at her own with a puzzled expression. She sighed, even after showing all of the steps to Marinette five times in a row, she still had a hard time of grasping the technique. "You first need to wrap the wool around your first stitch, hook it, then pull off of the needle."

The blue eyed girl stared at her stitching work for a few seconds, trying to visualise doing what her mother told her to, but then took all of the stitches off of the needles all together and started unwinding them.

"Marinette! What are you doing?"

"I'm gonna try again," She said, looking more determined than before, "I didn't like how it was turning out."

Sabine watched her daughter fumble with her wool- trying to recast ten more stitches- before sighing and turning her concentration back to her own work. It had been two hours since she first showed Marinette the entire process of knitting a pearl stitch. Since then, she nearly had her five foot long scarf with twenty stitches finished, while Marinette was back to square one on her twenty centimetres long headband-with ten stitches- for the tenth time.

She had her heart set on learning the stitch to a tea and making the headband look perfect enough to be a product of Gabriel Agreste's work. Which was nearly impossible since the pearl stitch was far more difficult than a regular stitch to get a hold of, paired with Mariette's habit of scrutinising any amount of progress she made.

Sabine found herself smiling at that thought as it reminded her of how critical she was of her cooking when she was fifteen. She remembered her first attempt at making a Victoria Sponge Cake. She was fourteen at the time and was still living in China when her brother bought her a cookbook while his two week holiday he spent in Europe. It was the first recipe she tried in the book and had to redo it about twenty times before she was satisfied with the result. It didn't matter how delicious everyone around her said it was the first time she made it, she needed to make sure that it reached her own standards of perfection before she could feel happy with it.

This constant drive for perfection was fueled by the instant passion she found in baking after receiving the book. There was something about making her own creation from scratch that felt exciting and intriguing. It was this same passion that led her to sign up for an exchange student programme to France when she was fifteen. Although she had never travelled so far away from her home before, she still felt an never ending need to learn more about baking and enhance her skills to their fullest potential and to do so in France- a country famous for its pastries- was like a paradise to her.

Originally, the programme was only meant to last four months, which was already very long as far as exchange programmes go. However, within three days of her coming to France and exploring the scenery and beautiful architecture, she came across a small bakery while on her way to visiting the Eiffel Tower.

It was a small, modest shop without anything outstanding or eye catching about it, so much so that she nearly wouldn't have paid any notice to it if it weren't for a young man standing outside, painting the window frames. She fondly remembers pretending to be lost and asking for directions just to have an excuse to talk to him- he was so attractive.

After a few minutes of chatting with him, she found out that he attended the same school that she would be spending her exchange programme at. This was how she made her first friend in France. They had three classes together and would talk in between periods and during lunch. There were some difficulties in communication as her French obviously wasn't up to par with his, but she did know quite a lot from her studies in China. He was very understanding and would slow down whenever she couldn't understand what he was saying and would take the time to explain to the best of his ability with extreme patience. As time went on she improved, bit by bit.

She learned that his parents owned the bakery where she first met him and he also had an interest in baking. He was told by his father that if he could prove to them that he can take care of the bakery on his own, then it would be his once his parents retire. He did many jobs such as clean dishes, work the cash register, help with the morning batches, help to calculate the bakery's finances, send out orders, check dates on products and every spring, he would paint the window frames and white wash the walls. He swore that one day when he had the leverage to run things the way he wanted, it would be 'the best bakery in all of Paris!'.

She rolled her eyes at that last comment, but she was still amazed at how much work he put into running the bakery along with getting good grades in all of his subjects. All for the sake of making his dream come alive. She admired his constant drive and ambition. So much so, that she started to take time after school to help him with all of his jobs when his parents weren't around.

Initially, he declined her offer. However, a few days later the bakery was especially busy and she received a phone call from him saying that he needed a lot of help. When she got there thirty minutes later, she realised that he wasn't kidding around when he said he needed help. The place was packed with people shouting orders towards the counter and he was the only one working that day. She thought it was crazy that he would be left with all of this work to himself and that he must not have realised just how hectic it could be for one person to run an entire bakery, nevermind 'the best bakery in all of Paris'.

She got to work straight away dividing the line of customers into two and attending to their requests alongside him. They worked together like a well-oiled machine and within an hour the string of customers lessened until only one or two entered every ten minutes. By the end of it all, she could see that he was clearly exhausted and she noticed that she too felt a bit tired after that crazy rush hour they both endured.

He was extremely grateful for helping him and was sweet enough to offer her some free croissants as a token of his gratitude. However, she rejected them and told him that she didn't need any payment for doing what any good friend would. He then offered to call her a taxi to bring her back to her host family's house. But she insisted on staying and helping him with the rest of his jobs. When he tried to argue with her -saying he could handle them himself- she figured he learned nothing from today so she ignored him and started washing dishes. Despite his constant protests.

After that day, Sabine found herself returning back to the bakery nearly every day after school to help him while his parents were away. During the time they spent together at the bakery, she found herself starting to develop feelings for her friend. From his passion for his work to his lob-sided smile he wore whenever she entered the door, to the way he looked her in the eye when he talked to her. She liked everything about him, and the attraction she felt for him when they first met had grown into a full on crush within a matter of weeks.

You can imagine the relief she felt when he asked her out during the second month of her exchange programme.

The rest of her time in France was amazing. She learned so much from her baking classes and the demonstrations she attended on pastry making. However, she found that the time she spent helping her boyfriend after school to run his parent's bakery was what she looked forward to the most each day. She found more worth in the experience she got from working beside him than she did with any of her classmates. They worked together perfectly, they knew exactly what jobs needed to be done, when and how before the other had to ask. It was like they were meant to be by each other's side. So when she had to go home, it wasn't the classes that she was sad to leave. It was him and their little bakery.

Before she left he asked her if they could try a long distance relationship, rather than breaking up. She said yes, but she didn't have much faith that it would work out very well. However, through letters, visits whenever they could afford them and phone calls each night, they managed to maintain a four-year long relationship. Was it difficult to date someone who was half-way across the world from her? Oh God, yes. But every moment that they got to spend with each other -whether face to face or through a telephone wire- made it worth the effort.

She remembered one very special time she visited him. She had just after turned twenty and was given the plane tickets from her parents as a special birthday gift. His parents had recently, finally passed the bakery on to him and she was extremely excited to see the changes he had made since she last saw. Her plane was coming back in a week so she decided to stay with him, instead of wasting money by booking a hotel.

When she finally made it to Paris, she wasted no time in calling a taxi to bring her to the bakery. However once she got there, she saw that there were almost no changes made to it. Everything looked pretty much the same as when she last visited.

As soon as he saw her, he ran from around the counter- leaving one of his customers who were ordering a cake for her daughter very confused- over to her. He picked her up and spun her around. He started rambling on about how much he missed her and was waiting all day wondering when she would show up. Sabine laughed and told him to attend to his customers, that they had plenty of time to talk later.

As soon as he finished serving the long line of customers that were there when she came in, he put up the 'closed' in front of the door window and straight away went back to talking to her again.

They didn't have much to catch up on since they talked over the phone every single night, so they talked about her trip and the annoying man who fell asleep on her shoulder and drooled during her flight. After a while, she asked him why he hadn't made any changes since he got the bakery, as he always said that he wanted to make it look amazing when he got the chance. He explained that he wanted to wait to get her opinion before doing anything, insisting that he needed her input since he couldn't have been able to run it without her constant encouragement and help.

She was so touched that he put so much value in her opinion and, of course, agreed to help him. Later, they decided to walk around the town for a bit before going to visit the Eiffel Tower.

The elevator ride up to the top reminded her of their first date and how nervous, yet happy she was to explore all of the different sites of Paris with him. She remembered all of her days working by his side in the bakery, talking with him in between classes, going to cooking demonstrations with him, _being with him_. She missed it all so much.

When they reached the top of the Eiffel Tower, the view took her breath away just like it did the first time she was there. She could see everything. The school they went to together, The Louvre where they spent their second date visiting the Mona Lisa, the Pont dez Arts where they attached their own 'love lock' and threw away the key -the day before her exchange programme was over.

All of these memories hit her at once and instead of bringing her happiness like they always had before, they made her realise just how much she was going to miss him when she had to go back. She didn't want to go home, she wanted to stay there in her favourite city in the world, with him, for the rest of her life.

You could imagine just how happy she felt when she turned around and saw him on one knee, holding a ring and asking her to marry him.

And there she was sixteen years later -still running the same bakery with the love of her life -teaching their beautiful daughter how to knit.

Words could not describe how proud she was to have her daughter who works so hard to achieve her dream. She was so happy to have Marinette grow up in a country that gave her so many opportunities to express her skills, and she could see her taking advantage of them all. Whether it's taking Home Ec. at school, entering fashion competitions or just creating her own designs at home with no reason to do it -except for fun, Marinette never slacks.

"Yes! Finally, one row is done!" The sixteen-year-old exclaimed in relief, holding her work up proudly with the said row on her right needle.

Sabine smiled.

Her daughter was definitely going places.

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 _ **Fin.**_

 **If I'm being honest I don't really like the ending too much, I might change it if I ever think of a better one :/.**

 **But anyways, please leave a review, you guys have no idea how excited and happy I am to see a review on one of my stories, whether it's saying that you liked it or giving constructive criticisms. I like learning how to improve so don't feel like you can't tell me if there is something you think I could work on.**

 **Also, I have a pole on my profile where you can vote for what you'd like me to write next :).**

 **But anyways, please review!**


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